The present invention relates to a data processing terminal device capable of accessing a host device via a communication network, downloading a variety of files, and executing data processing.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 9-14199, filed Jan. 28, 1997, Japanese Patent Application No. 9-85281, filed Apr. 3, 1997 and Japanese Patent Application No. 9-345211, filed Dec. 15, 1997, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Recently, in many companies, personal computers have become essential tools in order to enhance the informatization, and it is becoming very usual that each one of the staff owns his/her own personal computer. Further, LAN, (Local Area Network) which serves as a computer network designed to improve the efficiency of the work by summarizing and sharing data obtained from the distributed works each done by a different staff, is rapidly becoming popular.
However, at the same time, for the formatization within a company, it is, in many case, the case that a desired target work environment or efficiency cannot be always-easily achieved due to widely dispersed computer-operating skills of individual company staffs, who actually operate the personal computers, or the lack of utilization of the software applied to the personal computers. This is because in a LAN consisting of personal computers, each individual personal computer is not an exclusive terminal optimized as a terminal device for the informatization system of the company, and therefore individual staffs are required to be familiar with some knowledge on the personal computer, and to have an operational sense, but the amount of knowledge and the operational sense may differ from one individual to another.
Further, in the case where a LAN is made up of a great number of personal computers, the load on the system manager is increased each time a version-up of a software is made. As a version-up of a software progresses, it becomes more possible that the operator""s erroneous operation easily occur.
Under these circumstances, recently, network computers (to be abbreviated as NC hereinafter) whose processing functions are limited, have been proposed as terminals used to make up an informatized network such as LAN within a company, in order to facilitate the maintenance of the terminal device while reducing the processing load on the terminal. An informatized network (for example, LAN) employing such an NC, has communication functions of accessing an intra-company server via an exclusive line and accessing a server of a communication service company via a public line. Further, such a network has processing functions of providing a variety of types of processing environment obtained by downloading the programs of a variety of types of software stored in these servers, via the respective communication lines, and saving and maintaining the result of a process obtained by processing data with an NC, in a server side.
As described above, the NC has relatively simplified data processing functions capable of downloading a variety of types of application programs which are batch-managed by a server, in accordance with necessity, and processing a downloaded program, in addition to the function as a client in the conventional client-server type data processing system. Thus, the object is to realize the hardware structure of NC at low cost as compared to that of the conventional personal computer. Further, the object of an informatized network which employs such an NC is to reduce the system cost of the informatized network by carrying out the management and maintenance of application programs in a batch on the server side, so that the NC side is not required to do the management and maintenance of the application programs.
Further, mobile data processing terminals, including communication functions accessible to intra-company LANs or public network services, and designed mainly for processing personal information, are becoming popular, and one of the examples of such mobile data processing terminal is called PDA (personal digital assistant). The PDA is capable of accessing the intra-company server via an exclusive line, from outside, or accessing the server of the communication service company via a public line so as to send and/or receive data to and/or from the server, and the object of the PDA is to process data or save data to assist the work of the user.
However, in PDAs of the recent type, the communication functions and data processing functions are enhanced, and such PDAs can be applied even to the processing of application programs which conventionally can be dealt only with personal computers. Therefore, it is presently becoming possible with a PDA to conduct a data processing operation similar to that of the above-described NC, that is, the user of the PDA can connect it to a telephone line from outside, to access the server, and download an application program from the server to carry out a data processing.
As described above, the conventional NC has been proposed as an exclusive terminal device for the informatized network, to carry out the operation to access the server when necessary, and to download an application program file from the server, so as to realize an easy data processing function. However, a series of operations for communication, carried out when downloading the application program file from the server, are laborsome to the user, and in order to start an application, the operation of communication to access the server must be always conducted, thus complicating the starting operation for using an application program, and lowering the operability for the user.
The high level function PDA has the merit that the data processing functions similar to those of an NC can be utilized even outside; however a series of communication operations for downloading an application program file are troublesome to the user, thus complicating the starting operation for using an application program, and deteriorating the operability for the user.
The object of the present invention is to provide a data processing apparatus capable of downloading a necessary file from the host device connected via a communication network and immediately carry out the process of the downloaded file.
According to the present invention, there is provided a network terminal device adapted to be connected to a host device, comprising memory means for storing files; means for displaying indication items for specifying the files, on a display screen; means for selecting a desired indication item from the indication items displayed on the display screen; means for determining whether or not a file corresponding to the indication item selected by said selecting means is stored in said memory means; means for downloading the file corresponding to the indication item selected by said selecting means from the host device to the memory means, when it is determined by said determining means that the file is not stored; and processing means for executing a process based on the file downloaded by said downloading means.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a network terminal device adapted to be connected to a host device, comprising means for requesting transmission of data in connection with files stored in the host device, to the host device; means for acquiring file indication data transmitted from the host device, in response to the data request; means for displaying indication items based on the file indication data acquired by said acquiring means, on a display screen; means for selecting a desired indication item from the indication items displayed on the display screen; and means for downloading the file corresponding to the indication item selected by said selecting means, from the host device.
According to the present invention, in the case where a desired indication item is selected from a plurality of indication items displayed on the display screen, and a file corresponding to the selected indication item is not stored in the memory means, a file corresponding to the selected indication item is downloaded automatically from the host device. Therefore, the process of the file can be immediately carried out.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention.
The objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.